Introduction

Ten Things on Prophecy . . .

The Lord asked me to write a book on Ten Things on Prophecy and to put me at ease also said I should just have a casual fireside chat with people to discuss the issues I raise in this book, which in a way took the pressure off. I want to be both biblically and spiritually correct in what I share because I have seen too much carnage inflicted on the Body of Christ by the substitution of Man’s Ways, Man’s Wisdom and Man’s Carnal Mind in place of the Wisdom of God, the Attitudes of God, and the Thoughts of God—especially regarding prophecy. And I don’t want to be guilty of the same wrongdoing that I find so prevalent!

We’re dealing with Prophecy—God revealing his mind, emotions and thoughts to us. Why would we want to know what people think about it really? If God is actually the one speaking, actually the one teaching, why not ask HIM what he thinks instead? So maybe you can better understand what I mean when I say I do not value people’s opinions—not nearly as much as I treasure God’s prophetic word! I hope you are not offended. But once you experience being taught by God himself you’ll surely understand what I mean. Comparing the value of Man’s Ideas against true divine revelation God said, “What is the Chaff to the Wheat?” But hey, if you want to eat a big bowlful of dried up chaff, go right ahead! Be my guest! But as for me, I think I’ll pass!

That’s why, despite being considered highly educated and somewhat experienced, when He asked me to write this book on prophecy I was at a loss to really know what to say. I am very slow to make up my mind on topics I can’t easily see, or hear or touch—which means spiritual things mostly. I want divine truth, not more opinions—even when they come from me!

But he asked me to write a book on Ten Things about Prophecy so I started to collect my ideas and just as I began to write—he gave me a vision which revealed God’s heart about Prophecy to me—and his heart was full of grief!

The Vision of an Engagement Gift

What I saw was a handsome suitor giving an expensive engagement gift to his future bride. It was obviously something valuable and that he put a lot of thought into.

The only problem—or rather the first problem was that the lady didn’t understand the importance of what he was giving to her or value just how precious it was. And so she hesitated taking the gift from him and it was just long enough of a pause, just wide enough of a gap to allow an Enemy to SWOOP in between them and snatch the gift right out of her hands before she took hold of it!

Not the worst part yet!—as the Enemy soon found a way to twist and manipulate and contort that gift and fashioned it into a kind of weapon and immediately began to attack the lady with it—the Gift that was meant to be a blessing to her as a token of his Love was now causing her pain and sorrow instead!

And oh! I felt his grief so deeply and then realized the Gift was Prophecy—the handsome suitor yes, was Jesus, we are his Bride-to-be, and the grief the Lord let me feel—HIS grief—is such a powerful motivation to understand how to prevent the Enemy from having any more access to this gift, or the ability to harm us, his Beloved with it.

It took me over 18 more years of learning and maturing before he said it was time to write this book, which I now hope will help us be better stewards of Prophecy, to enable it to become an unprecedented blessing to the Body like never before—like it was meant to be. And to put an end to the Enemy being able to cause us any more harm or grief with it!

The Realm Beyond Gifts

So I have been prophesying for about 30 years by now and over 12 to 15 years ago the Lord invited me to serve him as his prophet. When my confidence grew, when I experienced deep inner healing and my openness to listening to him increased I began to be able to hear him talk to me in long conversations that were two-way dialogs where I could ask him any question and he would explain his views to me on so many important topics. It was not having a ‘gift’ that enabled this but several other factors instead, as everyone can hear his voice if they would just quiet themselves down and listen, which we will talk about soon.

This was when I began to be taught by God which I never knew was even possible the way I was then experiencing it!­—so this was when I began to learn so many things from Jesus that were not quite the same as things we taught in church. He was exposing Man’s Ways of thinking to me and explained the Flesh, the enemy of God WITHIN US—which He said is simply the Human Level Understanding, the Human Level Intellect, the Human Level Perception, Human Level Desires and Human Level Motives. So yes, people can be a Christian and live in the Flesh, people can minister but still do so in the Flesh. So this is what is largely behind the corruption of Prophecy in the church: it is simply Man’s Ways, the natural, carnal mind, the Flesh’s Earthly thinking—but which is also unfortunately under the dominion of the Enemy who can control and manipulate it. So the Flesh, as bad as that is, is also subject to the Enemy because it has no defense to its corrupting influences.

The Enemy dominates the Flesh, Jesus told me.

So yes, there are two enemies we are wrestling against which are corrupting Prophecy: Satan and the Fallen Nature, both of which must be overcome to allow this wonderful Gift to bring us the benefits, joy and treasure he intends for it to bring.

But fully addressing the division between those who Walk in the Spirit and those who Walk in the Flesh, the Sheep and the Goats, the Wheat and the Tares, The Wise and the Unwise Virgins—well, that is a large topic for another day, and maybe another book! Maybe even a different author?

So this vision of the Gift the Holy Spirit showed me tells us these few basic things: First, believe it or not but Prophecy is an expression of God’s love, even when it is a challenging word of correction or rebuke! (Revelations 3:19).

Second, our lack of eagerness to ‘lay hold’ of it has given the Enemy freedom to abuse us with this choice Gift to us. It is partly because of our negligence, so our diligence and eagerness to lay hold of it will help remedy this fault. (1 Corinthians 12:31).

And Third, our motivation to do a better job at handling the Prophetic Ministry should mostly be a reaction to alleviate his Grief, so it should be rooted and grounded in Love. Love ought to be our primary, driving motivation to improve the ministry of Prophecy, not pride or selfishness! That seems quite elusive, almost impossible—yet it is also a mandate for the body!!

And what I hear him say often is yes, to desire the gifts, it’s a noble desire to want to be a servant of God, a minister I mean, seek the gifts and walk in the callings—this is already so excellent—but there is yet a more excellent way. (1 Corinthians 13!) This means above all and everything we ought to seek to get to know him better. He is our great Reward, he is our great Destination. This is what will transform us and enable us to love like him. We don’t need a spiritual gift or a ministry platform to love people!

The Rainbow Within

And it may be the topic for another book, but I saw one day that a rainbow is made up of millions of raindrops, but in fact every single raindrop has within it the entire rainbow. This is like Christians, and especially Spirit-filled Christians.

Because just like the same white sunlight shines into each raindrop, and passing through them produces a vibrant display of the full colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet …. likewise each person who has the Light of the Holy Spirit shining into and then through them are each like a living prism, just like those raindrops, and so what was once ‘invisible’ to people now passing THROUGH US is suddenly manifested and visible to the dark and dying world. The Spirit of God, living and active within us is able to meet a very wide range of very different needs in many different situations in many different types of people through us: mercy, kindness, healing, prophecy, wisdom, finances …. and as he flows though us we can each reveal ANY PART OF THE GLORY OF GOD to reach any need in the dark and hurting world we come across.

So while in a group when you step back you can easily see some who are the Reds others who are the Blues, as some are more geared towards Evangelism, others Healing or still others Prophecy—but because the full spectrum of the rainbow of God’s beautiful graces is within each individual raindrop, each individual Christian, if they would just yield to the Holy Spirit within them they would be able to manifest ANY COLOR of the diversity of the ministries of the Holy Spirit to meet ANY need they are suddenly presented with and at any time. The Bible says:

2 Corinthians 9:8—And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

So it’s certainly true what Paul said, that EVERYONE can prophesy. Moses revealed God’s heart saying he wished ALL of God’s people were prophets and his Spirit would be poured out on everyone. Joel saw this was going to happen—and at Pentecost Peter actually experienced it happening. Amos said it’s like hearing a lion roar, when the Lord God has spoken, who can help themselves but prophesy! So really ‘Ye All May Prophesy!’

And if everyone could prophesy, maybe everyone should? Wouldn’t that be wonderful?!

Or maybe I can say it like this: Prophecy is already EVERYWHERE. It affects Everything, it is in Everyone, especially those who are believers, and all that we do is somehow linked to it—God does NOTHING unless he reveals his secrets to his servants the Prophets first—NOTHING! And God’s secrets are with those who fear him. And people don’t realize it sometimes but God actually talks A LOT—his thoughts to each of us are like the sand on the shore—so the more we interact with him, the more we embrace his personal direction, the more we will prosper!

If you don’t yet think Prophecy already affects your daily, mundane routine you will still have to admit that at least ALL MINISTRY is directly connected and affected by it. Preaching, teaching, pastoral care, evangelism for sure, but especially the core Kingdom ministries of inner healing, deliverance and direct fellowship with the Holy Spirit—God gives wisdom, timing, planning, business ideas, medical solutions, legal tactics to deal with police raids, family crises, political struggles and academic pursuits … prophecy is meant to be interwoven into EVERY ASPECT of every human endeavor for all of God’s people—and for the benefit of many others who are not. Prophecy is a revelation of God’s mind. So why would anyone not want to learn more about it, and be able to experience it more often?

So Who is this Book for?

Someone will then raise their hand and ask, “But who exactly is this book for?” Well, in my opinion, it’s for anyone affected by prophecy, or who wants to know more about hearing God’s voice or how God dynamically works with his people by his Spirit. That means just about everyone! Maybe I get a little excited when I discuss it, but I do not think I am overstating this. Paul also said to follow the way of Love and eagerly desire the spiritual gifts, ESPECIALLY Prophecy! Why? Clearly because of the tremendously beneficial effects prophecy has on the Body and in all areas of our life, especially if you want to prosper in what you do and be successful.

2 Chronicles 20:20b–“Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.”

So let’s just have a casual ‘fireside chat,’ shall we?

So I can’t, nor do I want to rattle off a long list of rules or doctrines. I don’t think that way—nor has Jesus ever taught me like that! But what I can do is sit down with you, as you grab a warm cup of coffee, and we can have a little fireside chat. That’s what Jesus asked me to do, and that way we can just talk through some of these difficult issues surrounding Prophecy and what it means to us in the Body of Christ to whom this engagement gift was given—and maybe even have a little fun in the process!

And as Jesus used culturally relevant analogies to explain the Kingdom to the people he preached to, to explain Prophecy I just realized I unintentionally, and against my better judgment, started by talking about Rainbows—and ended by discussing Unicorns—but at least in the middle I was able to make the point that Prophets are like the Race Car Drivers of the Body of Christ which I think is the most appropriate analogy—that or being like astronauts. I do hope it will help me connect to my target audience! We’ll soon find out!

So let’s just have a casual talk to discuss a few things to draw out God’s thinking, find God’s wisdom and in doing so finally expose the Flesh’s corruption and unravel the Enemy’s abuse of this vital Gift. Wouldn’t that be well worth our effort?

Prophecy is a serious business but we can still have a little fun talking about it. I only hope I am not offensive, or CONFUSING or intimidating because prophecy by nature can be all three!

So let’s just try to have some fun and demystify this mystery, unwrap this gift and admire the beauty and wonder of what Jesus our Bridegroom has already given us who are his Bride with this carefully-chosen and very valuable wedding gift—Prophecy!

So shall we get started?

Let’s do that right now!